comments: 6

It's a good article and one that I am going to share with my friends on the faculty here. Perhaps it can be added in to some of the reading our new students do in our required Freshman "Cornerstone" class.

Thank you for your contribution.PS - my captcha required to post this comment is "bambdzip"

Thanks, Tim and Julia. I could've added several (or a dozen) other examples of my undergraduate cluelessness. Now, I sometimes tell my students "I'm just trying to be a person." (I started in 1974 -- that story was from Spring '75.)

"Bored of": Well, we do say "tired of." The difference, it seems to me, is that "tire" isn't a transitive verb. "Bore" is. So you can be "bored by" something, but not "bored of" it. How's that sound?

Thank you, thank you! A transitive verb - I shall remember that. I either never had grammar instruction or I don't remember it but all my knowledge comes by osmosis, from reading. I know what is incorrect but I just don't know why.

(As an army brat, I went to 9 different schools in 11 years in 3 countries so my curriculum (continuity) was spotty at best.)

I'm back! Sorry, I know I'm not paying for tuition. I looked up transitive verbs at Wikipedia and they say this verb needs an object as well as a subject. However, they don't say what sort of preposition is required to link the verb and the object. So it looks like it is merely accepted use that allows one to be bored WITH something and not bored OF something, since both are prepositions. It still grates.

“Orange Crate Art” is a song by Van Dyke Parks and the title of a 1995 album by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson. It is, to my mind, one of the great American songs: “Orange crate art was a place to start.” Comments are welcome, appended to posts or by
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